When a furry family member crosses over the bridge, it’s hard on everyone, including surviving pets. Dealing with your own grief, and the grief of your human children, is difficult enough without also worrying about a remaining pet that may have stopped eating or is showing other signs of depression.

When two fur children are closely bonded and one of them dies, the surviving pet may have what experts refer to as a “distress reaction” that is similar in many ways to human grief. Some of the signs include:

As a mother of fur children, I know too well that making the decision to humanely euthanise your beloved family member is no easy feat.

I won’t beat around the bush here, you have to be very hard on yourself because in all honesty, emotionally you will be wanting to do everything possible to keep your fur child with you as long as possible.

Although you will need some softly guided assistance, love and kindness; you will have to get down to the nitty gritty of it and in the end you will have to make a difficult decision. Read the rest of this entry →

Like this:

I have had many requests for comms to track missing animals recently, especially during mercury retrograde so I decided to do a little research.

The result I found is that animals feel the disconnect as much as we do… and well now that I am focusing on it I realise that my animals have been acting … not like themselves…

As a mother of fur and feather children I am fully aware that they can make your life rather chaotic at times, especially if they live in the house. During Mercury retrograde is one of those times that their chaotic selves will spill over – more than usual… Read the rest of this entry →

How do you know that the organisation you support is LEGITIMATE, ABOVE BOARD, and that most importantly in a time when most people are counting their pennies – is your hard earned money being used effectively?

The truth is organisations need to be ADOPTING; and they need to be need to be educating about ADOPTION.

They need to STERILISE and they need to be educating about STERILISATION.

As the public we need to support animal welfare organisations that are transparent.

Why do they need to be transparent?

Well, let’s just say that if an organisation is not transparent, the organisation you have donated to could just as well be squandering YOUR MONEY on whatever their hearts desire.

How do you know that an organisation is transparent?

You can search for the organisation that you would like to support on http://www.npo.gov.za/ every NPO has to submit financials on a regular basis. If there are no financials you can request to view them. NPO’s and NPC ‘s are public entities and cannot object to the public asking questions about where they spend YOUR MONEY. If they aren’t 100& above board you can report them *even anonymously* on the same site and they will be audited.

You need to see that they are making a difference – how do you do this?

Ask questions.

A good organisation will have no objections to you asking questions. They will be more than willing to indulge queries from the most ludicrous to the most intellectual.

A good organisation will have a good balance of happy tails and problem areas. The thing with problem areas is that they should be making a visible effort to mend these issues.

A good organisation tells you what they are spending donations on.

A good organisation aligns themselves with other good organisations. They certainly don’t cause problems for other organisations whether financial or otherwise.

A good organisation does NOTBREED. They educate people about sterilisation. The animals on their premises should be sterilised; or in the process of being sterilised. Adoptees should not leave the organisation intact – if the adoptee is too young to leave sterilised; a sterilisation contract should be drawn up.

WHY? Because there are far too many unsterilized, unhomed animals – too many healthy animals are PUT TO SLEEP every year – every month – every week – every day….

Organisations should be seen as entities who are working towards the greater goal of ending this.

A good organisation operates on a strict, adopt – don’t shop basis.

A good organisation operates with an adoption fee. An adoption fee, gives the organisation the opportunity to rescue more animals. This in turn should cancel out a portion of needing to ask for donations from the public. This would mean that YOUR MONEYgets put to better use.

A good organisation conducts home checks. Once again the reason for this is because there are too many unhomed animals. Not only that – organisations need to be certain that animals will be safe and secure in their FUREVER HOME. They need to be certain that their animals will not end up boomeranging back in to animal welfare system again. They need to be certain that their animals will not end up as bait or fighting animals in fighting rings.

A good organisation does follow up checks. For the same reasons as my previous point.

A good organisation has approved foster homes. Foster homes are scrutinised as strictly as potential homes. Once again for the same reasons as conducting home checks.

A good organisation should have no problem with the public spending time with their animals. They should be able to tell the public about their animals’ behaviour. I.e. their animals should be assessed.

A good organisation knows their limits

Tips to look for on social media:

A good balance of posts:

NO 1 should be adoptions,

Happy tails – conquests – good news

Few pleas for donations.

Other organisations should be thanked appropriately for their contributions.

The public should be thanked for their contributions.

If they break social media rules – are they not perhaps breaking other bigger rules?

HONESTY

You can’t be serious all the time – there should be a reason to laugh sometimes too.

If you don’t see this happening, either don’t support them or help them on the right path… they should be open to your help and suggestions.

If they haven’t shared this article, maybe you should ask why? Is there perhaps something here that they are not doing?

The most vetoed comment on my Facebook page was by Michelle Raath: She said: “Those that make a difference to the animals and not to themselves personally. Those that help other shelters and organisations. Organisations that give feedback and statistics, are open about themselves.”

Others commenting mentioned the following points about why they supported organisations

Spayathons

Having the animals best interest at heart

High Standards

Caring staff

Every cent donated goes to the animals

Being appreciative of all and any help

Supporting the animals in action and not only words

Organisations that township outreach programmes

Exposing animal abuse

Creating awareness

Where it is about the animals, sterries, and education

Those that acknowledge other organisations for the work they have done

Those who take no salaries

Thank you to everyone who took part! I appreciate every comment made

Please feel free to comment below if you feel I have left something out.

It is important to the animals that we do right by them.

Please, be kind and DO NOT COPY AND PASTE THIS ARTICLE.

“The Copyright Act[3] defines nine classes of work that are eligible for copyright:[4]

Last but not least you can fill in your email addy in the “you have mail” box (in the right hand column or in the bottom right hand corner), click the “follow” button and have up coming posts delivered to your email. *Try it – it’s as good as having your dog bring your newspaper to you in the mornings*

Kloof and Highway SPCA have many clever fundraising ideas and Cars on the green is one of my favourites.

I have taken my children to the event for the last three years. It acts as an added birthday treat for my son and we get to support the good work that this SPCA branch does in the community. Read the rest of this entry →